Wave Life Sciences Ltd. (NASDAQ:WVE) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Wave Life Sciences Ltd. (NASDAQ:WVE) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $7.00.

WVE has been the subject of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Wave Life Sciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $7.00 to $5.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 23rd. Leerink Partnrs reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Wave Life Sciences in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Mizuho reduced their target price on Wave Life Sciences from $13.00 to $10.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 24th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Wave Life Sciences in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Raymond James began coverage on shares of Wave Life Sciences in a research report on Wednesday, July 5th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 price target on the stock.

Wave Life Sciences Price Performance

NASDAQ WVE opened at $4.48 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $4.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.15. The company has a market capitalization of $443.43 million, a P/E ratio of -3.29 and a beta of -0.90. Wave Life Sciences has a 12 month low of $2.56 and a 12 month high of $7.12.

Wave Life Sciences (NASDAQ:WVE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The company reported ($0.20) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.32) by $0.12. The business had revenue of $22.11 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.08 million. On average, analysts anticipate that Wave Life Sciences will post -0.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Wave Life Sciences news, CFO Kyle Moran sold 37,062 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.75, for a total value of $176,044.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 46,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $219,070. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 31.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Wave Life Sciences

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WVE. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in Wave Life Sciences by 1.5% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,937,786 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,876,000 after purchasing an additional 43,423 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Wave Life Sciences by 450.1% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 205,194 shares of the company’s stock worth $410,000 after acquiring an additional 167,894 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Wave Life Sciences by 274.8% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 421,412 shares of the company’s stock worth $843,000 after acquiring an additional 308,966 shares in the last quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP acquired a new position in shares of Wave Life Sciences in the first quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA boosted its stake in Wave Life Sciences by 457.0% in the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 20,777 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 17,047 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 72.91% of the company’s stock.

Wave Life Sciences Company Profile

Wave Life Sciences Ltd., a clinical-stage genetic medicine company, designs, optimizes, and produces novel stereopure oligonucleotides through PRISM, a discovery and drug developing platform. It is developing oligonucleotides target ribonucleic acid (RNA) to correct disease-causing mutations, modulate protein activity, restore the production of functional proteins, or reduce the expression of disease-promoting RNAs or proteins.